Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Ok, this is the fourth attempt to write this post in as many weeks. Firstly, before I forget (and I reminded myself with this photo) THANK YOU all for your wonderful, kind, inspirational and nagging comments on my last post. They have most definitely helped me to get back here again ( I respond well to nagging but we'll ignore the fact that it has taken over eight weeks).

My last attempt at a " Right now" post dragged on over about four weeks and became completely confusing so it is sitting in drafts while I pretend it does not exist. This attempt is going to be done tonight and I am absolutely not going to fall asleep doing it.

Right now it has been almost a year since we moved back home after the renovation. There was a flurry of renovating activity back in Summer and then after Easter it stalled pretty much through all of winter. Now that we are coming out the other side of months of winter illness the motivation is coming back. Right now there are six completed rooms in the house, four that are half finished (undercoated) and another four that are untouched.

Right now, for the first time in as long as anybody can remember, my house is no longer blue. Yep, just yesterday, after seven long weeks of scaffolding and drop sheets and sanding and dust, a lovely painter finished giving Betsy her long awaited new frock. Here is a sneak peek, with some mulberries from my garden.

Right now we are all enjoying the beautiful spring weather and spring blooms.

Right now I am enjoying popping back to a few op shops ( there has been a bit of a hiatus there too) and finding some colour.

I love this pin case as it reminds me of the one my mum used when I was a little girl ( I think hers was the same but pale blue)

Right now these two curbside finds are lining up to get painted. The big one is a boot rack for the laundry, the small is going to transform into a stove for the sandpit.

Right now my girl is super excited to have won the prep prize for most bling'd up scooter on walk or ride to school day. We obviously know how to do good bling in this house.

Right now the kitchen art wall looks like this.

Well, look at that, an entire post written and I am still awake. I very much hope to share some befores and afters of the last year but for now I am just thankful to be back, even if it is just in the moment of right now.

Friday, July 4, 2014

I think I fell off my blog. I think I started slipping off sometime last year and while I continued for a while out of some sense of duty, this year the words whittled away and then eventually just dried up completely. The reason for my lack of words is complicated, boring and probably better left unsaid. Sometimes there are just not the words to be found. Sometimes finding the colour and magic in the everyday no longer becomes an everyday reality. Sometimes the great unsaid becomes too great and there is nothing left to be said at all.

Around the same time that I fell off this blog I noticed many other blogs appeared to be drifting away. Sadly, while the big commercial blogs endure, many of my favourite bloggers (real people who love to create/craft/renovate/op shop/share the joy of their families) have been blogging much less or not at all.

I suspect many of them have defected to Instagram. I avoided Instagram for as long as it took me to realise that if I wanted to find out what was happening on West End Cottage's renovation I needed to get myself over there (totally understandable Caroline, given that your primary job is raising those four gorgeous boys not providing reno updates for me). Having dabbled there for a few months (partly due to a dodgy internet connection at home) I have come to the conclusion that Instagram unsettles me on several levels and I really need to start blogging again.

I wondered if anyone else had felt like this about Instagram so I want to share what I have noticed.
Firstly, with horror and surprise I have roughly the same number of followers after four months on Instagram as took me almost four years blogging. Despite that, I only feel like I have genuinely connected to a handful of new people. (Many of the followers are old bloggy buddies and it is so nice to find you all again). I am spending bigger chunks of my precious time looking at pretty pictures from people I do not know and will never really know because there are not enough words, there is no story and heck that picture of a cat/rabbit/vase of peonies/gorgeous vintage fabric- who did that belong to again? Because I have just seen 357 like that today and I can't keep track of who is who because there are not enough words, no story and no layers.

I love knowing that Zara has chickens, sews her own vintage fabric frocks (and is possibly the only person with more milk glass than me), and Kylie has a finished laundry renovation and Brismod has moved into the Midcentury house of her dreams and Elaina is teaching herself to sew and Christina knits her own socks and Gillian is now posh cause her house is in a magazine ( and I like knew her, before she was all famous) and Ada has just painted her lounge room the most glorious shade of blue and Mel is having tea with the 94 year old lady who used to own her house and Deb (who I have never met) just knitted my daughter the most beautiful rainbow beanie because she knows she would love it.
I also feel that Instagram has a more addictive quality, there are simply so many images to keep up with, it is easy to just pop on there ALL THE TIME.
Lastly, I have noticed that since joining Instagram I am simply wanting more stuff. Having never been an internet shopper this is noticeable as I have made several purchases and am coveting more clothes/shoes/bags/vintage goodies/pet rabbits* than I ever did while blogging. The proportion of stores and stylists and people just flogging their stuff on Instagram is massive and to me feels oppressive. Maybe I just haven't stumbled onto enough creative Instagrammers but instead of feeling inspired I feel wanting and I don't remember feeling like this blogging.

So, if anyone still actually reads blogs, I would love to know if anyone else wants a bloggy revival? Anyone else not feeling the Instagram love? And if no one is reading, woohoo, I'll just get back to writing like no one is reading and keepsake all these precious memories for my kids.

Before I forget, if my bloggy mojo can be successfully resuscitated, there are significant reno updates to be shared. I should add I'm not totally jumping ship off Instagram, but plan to be on there a lot less and on here a lot more. Lastly, I credit the existence of this post to Mel from Coal Valley View as she is simply the best writer out here in blog world. Rant over.

*actually this is not quite true as I just remembered coveting pet rabbits while blogging but they were much less covetable than the current rabbits (rabbits are illegal as pets where I live unless you are a magician- tis a cruel world).